County preseason battle: Bedford North Lawrence, Mitchell ready for football scrimmage
BEDFORD − Both teams will return several veterans from seasons past when Bedford North Lawrence and Mitchell come together on the football field Friday at 7 p.m. for the annual IHSAA-controlled scrimmage.
So some of the names will remain the same and there's no protecting the guilty or innocent when it comes to big hits or big plays. But every team is different in its dynamic from year to year. The only certainty going into the scrimmage this year is that the location has been changed from its original site.
Mitchell has a beautiful new turf field on the way and the Bluejackets will play on it this season.
Just not right now.
Turf taking its time
It isn't finished. The prep work is done, but Mitchell is waiting on the actual turf to arrive, so the expected completion date is the last week of August or early September. Thus, the Bluejackets must move the scrimmage to Stars Stadium, and the season opener against Edgewood will be shifted back to Ellettsville.
It certainly isn't what first-year Mitchell head coach Kevin Kling (20-11 in three years at Triton Central) had in mind, but the next three games were already scheduled for the road, so the issue is minimized in his eyes, and he even managed to keep his sense of humor about the situation.
"Well, I'm sitting here looking out at a field of rocks right now and that's not great," Kling said with a hearty laugh. "Our kids are tough, but there's a fine line between tough and crazy. We're not crazy, so I don't think we're going to play on rocks.
"So the scrimmage and the Edgewood game get moved away from home, but that's it, so we'll be alright. I think the Crawford County game (Sept. 16) will be the first one at home, and we'll be ready. At the end of the day it could have been much worse."
Kling is utilizing this setback as a teaching tool for his kids and the coaches.
"One of the big things we talk about with the kids is handling adversity and how do you respond to it," he said. "We're going to attack adversity. This is a bit of a tough thing for all of us, but we're not sitting around here feeling sorry for ourselves or whining about it.
"We're adjusting, attacking the adversity, and making the best of the situation while still learning and getting better."
Kling expects Bluejackets to battle at BNL
"Really, what I want to see Friday night is growth from our summer program," Kling said. "We went and had a joint scrimmage at North Daviess this summer, and it was our first kind of outside competition since I got here. You could see initially that our guys were a little shell-shocked, had some of that deer-in-the-headlights look.
"But as the scrimmage went on we lost most of that look and started getting into it and competing pretty well. So we had growth, and now I just want to see continued growth in terms of how we compete and how we execute our things. Our kids have been great about learning my system, about getting into the weight room to get stronger, and about what we expect out of them as Mitchell football players.
"Now I want to see us take the next step in our physical growth and mental growth as players and as a team, and Friday night gives us an excellent opportunity to see where we are in terms of those things."
BNL ironing the edges
Derrick Barker is in his second season as BNL's head coach, and he's looking to the scrimmage for answers to some personnel questions, and to see how his new team is going to tee it up against outside competition under full-contact conditions.
There are some virtual certainties in the lineup, but there is still widespread competition for playing time, and Barker will have a keen eye out (as well as film rolling) Friday.
"They are not set in stone anywhere," Barker insisted. "There are some kids ahead and there may be a starting lineup, but we have depth and there are kids we can stick in there. So we're still watching to see who wants to play, who is going to step forward and show us some things.
"I expect this scrimmage to be a little different from last year. "It seems like each year it always goes a little bit differently. Last year we were very physical I felt, and I certainly want to see more of that. But I don't think we executed real well at times, made some mistakes that you just have to eliminate.
"It's tough to attain perfect execution, but we need to minimize the mistakes. And we do believe you can have perfect effort and perfect aggression. Those are big things we'll be watching to see."
The scrimmage will start at 7 p.m. at Stars Stadium.
Contact Times-Mail Sports Writer Jeff Bartlett at jeffb@tmnews.com, or on Twitter @jeffbtmnews.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: BNL, Mitchell to resume football rivalry in scrimmage Friday
